The present invention relates to a medicine supply apparatus which supplies medicine contained in a tablet case to a container (phial or bag), and the like by the quantity designated by a prescription in a hospital, and the like.
In hospitals or pharmacies, for example, as described in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 5282/1982 (B65B1/30), a medicine supply apparatus (referred to as a tablet packing machine in the publication) has been heretofore used to dispense the medicine prescribed by a doctor to a patient. In such system the quantity described in the prescription of the medicines (tablets, capsules, and the like) is discharged from a discharge drum (referred to as an alignment board in the above-described publication) in the tablet case one by one, subsequently collected by a hopper and packed.
Moreover, for example in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 40881/1987 the tablet case (tablet container) is provided with a tablet detecting sensor for detecting discharged tablets and a display, and when no tablet is discharged from an empty tablet case, or when the tablets get stuck, a trouble is displayed on the display, and the operation is stopped based on the sensor detecting operation.
However, in the conventional art, when the tablets get stuck as described above, the trouble display is performed only to stop the operation, and therefore a problem arises particularly with an apparatus for supplying various types of medicines that the frequency of occurrence of the tablet sticking increases and that the dispensing operation efficiency is remarkably deteriorated.
The present invention has been developed to solve such conventional technical problem, and provides a medicine supply apparatus which can improve the efficiency of dispensing operation.
The medicine supply apparatus of the present invention is constituted by storing a plurality of tablet cases stored in a main body case storage part, each tablet case comprising a container for containing a medicine and a discharge drum for discharging the medicine from the container, and comprises a motor for driving the discharge drum and a controller for controlling the operation of the motor, and the controller comprises means for rotating forward the motor to discharge the medicine and for detecting medicine sticking, so that when the medicine sticking occurs, the motor is rotated backward and then rotated forward.
Moreover, in the medicine supply apparatus of the present invention, the above-described controller is characterized in that the operation of rotating backward and then rotating forward the motor is repeated a plurality of times.
Furthermore, in the medicine supply apparatus of the present invention, after performing the operation of rotating backward and then rotating forward the motor, the above-described controller executes a predetermined alarm operation in a medicine sticking state.
Additionally, in the medicine supply apparatus of the present invention, the above-described controller detects the medicine sticking by detecting a lock state based on the current supplied to the motor.